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England drop Kevin Pietersen for limited overs series

Pietersen scored only 140 runs in the four-match Test series against Pakistan

Kevin Pietersen has been omitted from England's limited overs series against Pakistan, which begins on Sunday.

Pietersen revealed the news on his Twitter page, which contained an expletive and was hastily deleted.

The England and Wales Cricket Board later confirmed the story and that the 30-year-old batsman would play for Surrey for the remainder of the season.

"I have no issue with the selectors and my sole focus now is working on my game ahead of an exciting winter," he said.

England play Twenty20 internationals against Pakistan on Sunday and Tuesday, followed by five 50-over international matches from 10-22 September.

National selector Geoff Miller criticised the way Pietersen had revealed the news and called for him to "let his bat do the talking".

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"I'm not a great believer in players having press pieces to write or columns in the press and I'm not sure what this Twitter thing is supposed to do," Miller told BBC Radio 5 live. "His disappointment has been shown to rest of world but we make decisions as selectors and we stand by those decisions."

Pietersen, who has made 232 runs in nine Test innings against Bangladesh and Pakistan this summer, with a top score of 80, has finalised a loan move from Hampshire to Surrey.

"We feel that his game would be best served by getting as much cricket under his belt as possible before a long and challenging winter," Miller explained.

"The remainder of the county season is an ideal opportunity to do just that and we thank Surrey for enabling Kevin the chance to play and we thank both Surrey and Hampshire for facilitating the loan period for the remainder of the county season.

"Kevin has proved on numerous occasions that he is a world class player and we know he'll benefit from getting more time in the middle to work on his batting and get his game back to the level he has shown throughout his career."

Pietersen said: "While I'm naturally disappointed to have been omitted I fully understand the reasons why and will be doing everything I can to get back into the England team."

BBC cricket correspondent Jonathan Agnew said the England hierarchy would be less than impressed by Pietersen's indiscretion.

"As if there wasn't enough going on in the world of cricket Kevin Pietersen has now joined the ranks of those who have pre-empted official announcements on Twitter, and not in the politest of language either," said Agnew.

"He informed his 30,000 followers that not only has he been dropped by England but also that he has signed for the county club Surrey - the Tweet was swiftly removed, but too late.

"The ECB will take an extremely dim view of this indiscretion, which comes as administrators from England, the International Cricket Council and the Pakistan Cricket Board are negotiating the best way forward in the light of the
betting scandal."

Former England opener Geoff Boycott believes Pietersen will benefit from being left out of England's limited overs side following his failure in the fourth Test at Lord's, where he fell for a first-ball duck.

"He should be told to go find a county, which we think will be Surrey, and play a couple of Championship matches," Boycott told Test Match Special last week.

"This is not a punishment but it is so he can play some cricket. If you are sweating for weeks on end, and before you go to Australia, about playing a proper innings in the middle, that's not proper preparation for the Ashes."

In June, Pietersen announced he would no longer be playing for Hampshire, having played only 11 games for the club in four years. He cited the fact he lived in London as the reason for his exit.

Pietersen's outburst comes only days after the ECB issued a warning to players about Tweeting sensitive or offensive information.

Australia batsman Phillip Hughes was reprimanded for revealing he had been left out of the side for the third Ashes Test at Edgbaston last summer, while Yorkshire players Tim Bresnan and Azeem Rafiq have both been censured after expletive-strewn Tweets.

Meanwhile, Surrey's Steven Davies, 24, has been named as wicketkeeper for both the Twenty20 and one-day international matches.

Somerset's Craig Kieswetter, who kept wicket in the triumphant World Twenty20 campaign in the West Indies earlier this year, has been included in the Twenty20 squad, but will play only as a batsman.

The 22-year-old has been left out of the 50-over squad, however, having made only 121 runs in eight innings against Australia and Bangladesh earlier this year, with a top score of 38.

Speaking about Davies, who played one T20 and one ODI in 2009, Miller said: "He has had an excellent year for Surrey this season and has earned his chance to take on the role as wicketkeeper in England's limited overs set-up."

Batsman Ian Bell will make his return from a foot injury in Warwickshire's Clydesdale Bank 40 match against Nottinghamshire on Saturday.

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